The Earth-Tube (3 page)

Dr. Angell was sensitive in those days, as always, to the public will, particularly as expressed in print. And when one paper printed his photograph three days in succession on its front page, with the caption: “Hasn’t Seen Scientist Yet!” he capitulated. On the third afternoon he announced that he would visit Dr. Scott at once and learn at first hand whether the old man was insane or otherwise.

Dr. Scott and Anna were in the laboratory with King when the Secretary came. They heard the strong, important ringing of the bell, and King slid down from the tall stool upon which he had been sitting. “I think we have an important visitor,” he remarked. “Now it’s up to you to convince him.”

Dr. Scott smiled briefly. “That may be a tougher job than getting him to come here,” he said, “but I’ll do my best.”

“He’ll believe you,” King replied.

The Secretary was accompanied by a clerical assistant and a uniformed attendant. Dr. Scott, his stained apron napping unceremoniously about his knees, went to the door and admitted him. He offered chairs for the entire party before an alcove in the laboratory, which had been screened off in anticipation of the interview.

“You have met my associate. “ began Dr. Scott warmly. “To his help and ingenuity I owe the success of most of my recent experiments. “

“I can well imagine,” returned the Secretary dryly.

“He paid me a visit at my office the other day.” He glanced airily about the room and continued, “In case he feels like repeating his forced entry, I might say that my attendants have all been instructed to shoot first and ask questions afterward.”

King smiled and gripped the Secretary’s hand. “It won’t be necessary to repeat the visit,” he said. “Dr. Scott will make clear to you to-day what we have to show you.”

“And this is my daughter,” said Dr. Scott.

Dr. Angell saw that Anna was a beautiful girl, quiet and poised. He glanced at her appreciatively as he acknowledged the introduction.

Anna returned his smile.

“I’m glad you came,” she said.

“We are all eager to place this information as soon as possible in the hands of the Government,” Dr. Scott continued quickly. “My letter,” he went on, “explained in general the reason for calling you here.”

The Secretary accepted the proffered chair suspiciously. “If you will pardon me,” he replied, “your letter not only mentioned the subject of this interview, but contained statements which convinced me, my dear Professor, that you are perhaps. a little unbalanced.”

The scientist smiled.

“I thought you would say that,” he returned evenly. “That’s why I asked you to come to my laboratory. Here we can give you demonstrations, Mr. Secretary. We can back our theories up with ample proof!”

King swung the alcove screen aside. In the brightly lighted space beyond there was a model of the earth, a huge globe more than fifteen feet in diameter, made apparently of day and stone, with jellylike masses to represent water and rough approximations of the continents and mountain chains. At the turn of a switch the model moved upon its axis, slowly at first, then with gathering speed. Tiny and intricate seismographic units,
³
situated at various places upon the surface, made accurate records whenever this even motion was disturbed. It was a complete instrument for studying the phenomena of the earth.

“You will permit us, I hope, to show you exactly what we mean,” Dr. Scott continued, glancing briefly at his model to observe its turning. The Secretary, who was staring at the huge object with ill-concealed amazement and surprise, slowly nodded.

“Yes,” he replied, “though I haven’t the slightest notion what you are trying to prove.”

“I’ll try to make that clear,” said Dr. Scott.

He took a short pointer from a rack near by and moved it about the sphere, indicating features as he mentioned them, in an absent-minded manner he had acquired through years of teaching in his lean middle life.

“You will remember,” he began, “that these peculiar manifestations were first noticed about four years ago. At the beginning they were irregular, of small importance, and appeared to be located near the surface, somewhere in the northern part of the Eastern Hemisphere.

“They grew steadily in intensity throughout the following two years, and began to attract attention among scientists, at first more because they were difficult to locate exactly than because they were considered dangerous. They were still attributed vaguely to the Eastern Hemisphere, perhaps in the general region of southern Japan.

“But if you will remember, no careful check was possible, because of the conquering hordes which had poured out of central Asia five years earlier, overwhelming both Japan and China. Triumphant, they had closed these ancient lands once again to Western visitors and forbidden all communication between the West and that particular portion of the East.

“Until a year ago it was generally thought that some obscure volcanic action was taking place over there. Little attention was paid to it, because there were thought to be no Occidentals there except a few who were considered to have been killed at the time of the conquest. Therefore, what happened in Japan was deemed of little real concern to us, especially after we were signally unsuccessful in attacking the curious new metal fortifications erected along the shores by those unknown peoples out of Asia.

“The beating and hammering of the earth was not really a cause for serious thought in this country until some scientist discovered that it no longer appeared to be located on the surface at the other side of the globe, but at or near the center. This, I need hardly say, was a most unusual discovery, for hitherto earth shocks have all been supposed to originate somewhere near the surface; at least within that outer envelope of hard crust known as the lithosphere, which for convenience’ sake is generally supposed to extend into the earth about ten miles.

“Beyond that depth we know nothing of the earth except what we have guessed and calculated. It was thought safe to conclude, however, that the interior was continually subjected to pressure enormous beyond human comprehension, and that while probably not molten, due to the great pressure, it would be so tremendously hot that the hardest stones would be instantly melted, and perhaps rendered gaseous, should the pressure suddenly be removed.

“Under such conditions, it seems likely that there could be no natural cavities at the center of the earth, and consequently no movement of strata. Accordingly, when tremors were reported to be originating in this hot and compressed region, it caused a sensation. Most scientists immediately set it down to miscalculations or imperfections in the instruments. A few speculated, but got nowhere.”

The Secretary nodded comprehendingly.

“The tremors we now experience first began to cause alarm a few months ago,” Dr. Scott went on. “At that time they first assumed their present regular and rhythmic aspect. Before that they were frequent, but irregular. They varied greatly in intensity and duration. Now they have become so standardized that they can be forecast and measured in advance. Whatever change has taken place in the earth, it is certain that these manifestations have entered a new and terrifying phase, no longer to be confused with earthquakes or ordinary mechanical or chemical phenomena.”

The scientist paused for a moment, dramatically. Dr. Angell, the Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas, was sitting forward in his chair, deeply interested, and for the first time understanding the problem in its scientific light. His attendants, neither of them learned men, were also interested. In the face of the clerk, who had been taking down Dr. Scott’s remarks in shorthand, there was a peculiar expression of horror as if he had already grasped the significance of the words and the conclusion to which they must inevitably lead.

The professor continued, sure of his ground. He emphasized with his pointer as he went on with the explanation.

“I need hardly show you samples of the seismographic readings,” he said. “No doubt you already have plenty of them in your office, for I understand that you have earlier interested yourself in this problem. But I must make certain comparisons with typical readings to show you the purpose of this model earth here and what it proves.”

He touched the button. Instantly there flashed upon a screen above the model a banded chart, with the spidery scrawling of a seismograph clearly marked upon it.

“This is one of the readings, which have often been duplicated in the last few months, as it appeared in Washington. Now if you will notice, I have placed one of my miniature seismographs on the model at Washington. I have built this earth as accurately as I know how, to reproduce the actual conditions as far as that would be possible. The inside is filled with a viscous mass, simulating the viscosity of the earth. The outer shell is made in proportion, both as to weight and thickness. The oceans, simulated in jelly, are approximately correct. In the model I have also placed powerful magnets in such positions that they roughly represent gravity, attracting toward the center. Unfortunately, I have been unable to overcome the force of the real gravity, but I have compensated for it, and in a measure offset its importance for the purposes of this experiment.

“You will observe, if you look closely, that there is a small opening in the earth on an unexplored and hitherto unknown island in the Japanese Sea. There is another exactly opposite it in a small hypothetical island near South America. These openings are connected by a long tube which passes directly through the center of the model, and through which I will drop this iron bullet when we have got the model to rotating at the proper speed.”

The lights in the laboratory suddenly went out, except for a single bright glow at one side of the globe, which might have represented the sun. The huge model began to revolve. It gained speed rapidly, until a small instrument which Dr. Scott held in his hand gave a sharp click. At that point he kept the speed of the model constant.

“We have now reached a rotation,” he explained, “approximately proportional to that of the. earth, reckoning the size of the model in relation to that of the larger sphere. We have spent much time refining these instruments and insuring the accuracy of this experiment. I will now permit the bullet to drop into the tube, where it will respond to the electro-magnets, being iron, as an object dropping into the real earth would respond to gravity.”

There was a click, a slight train of sliding sounds as of metal touching metal at growing speed, then silence. Dr. Scott turned off the power and brought his earth model gently to a stop. Quickly he took the reading of the tiny seismograph located at Washington and flashed it on the screen, greatly magnified, beside the one already showing there. The similarity between them was apparent.

The Secretary looked at the two readings, then at the model. With a puzzled expression he turned to the scientist.

“You have reproduced the tremor,” he admitted, “but still I do not see. “

Dr. Scott laid down his pointer with an air of patience. “Mr. Secretary,” he said, “you have had a great deal of interest in this problem as an amateur scientist. But it was not in this capacity that I called you here to-day. It was because of your duty as a defender of the Americas.

“In short, I am telling you that certain mysterious and hostile peoples on the other side of the earth, fearing to attack us in the air or on water for reasons I shall explain,
have dug a tunnel directly through the hot center of the earth,
and at this moment are preparing to land a hostile force in South America, in the first drive of a war which may wipe out all of the white population on both of the American continents, and which may, if they are not careful, destroy the earth as well!”

The Secretary rose, his face red and furious.

“You are joking with me,” he said. “I did not come here for that kind of entertainment. A tunnel through the earth! Impossible!”

“Please, please,” said Professor Scott, standing in front of his guest firmly, “do not be so sure that it is impossible until I have explained further. Impossible for us. yes, I will admit that. But that it was impossible for those people who have so cunningly sought to attack us in this manner it certainly was not, and that I can show you also, if you care to hear.”

The anger of the Secretary was genuine. “My good man,” he exclaimed, “you don’t know what you are saying. If this story ever gets out they will make a worse fool of you than ever before. Please stop this nonsense while you still have a shred of reputation left!

“Your own words have condemned this new theory. What of the tremendous pressure you mentioned a short while ago? Don’t you know that the subsurface pressure of the earth has been pretty accurately calculated for a depth of ten miles, and that only so far down it would be equal to thirty times the crushing strength of the finest steel, and nearly one thousand times that of the strongest stone?

“And what of the heat to which this hypothetical earth-tube would be subjected? You have yourself said that the probable temperature at the center of the earth would be sufficient to melt and render gaseous any known rock. What would this invading force build their tube of, to stand such tremendous heat, supposing for the sake of argument that they had found a way to dig the hole under such impossible difficulties in the first place?”

Dr. Scott smiled.

“Sit down, Mr. Secretary,” he said coolly. “I was coming to that.”

The Secretary made a gesture of resignation. “I will listen,” he said, “but please don’t expect me to believe what you say.”

V

The room grew quiet again. The Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas, charged with the defense and protection of hundreds of millions of persons on two continents, listened quietly but with apparent disbelief when the old scientist continued his explanation.

“If you will remember,” Dr. Scott said, “when the unknown tribes poured out of the Asian wastes to conquer China and later Japan, they were able to succeed against those clever and intelligent peoples, trained in all the arts of war and equipped with the most modern explosives and gases, because of one thing. They were able to build metal breastworks and crawling tanks which appeared able to withstand the highest-powered explosives and the battering action of every gun in the enemy camp.